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The administration of Donald Trump announced on Friday a significant expansion of its denaturalization campaign, filing cases in federal courts against approximately a dozen naturalized citizens born abroad, accused of having fraudulently obtained citizenship, committed felonies, or maintained ties to terrorism.
The affected individuals come from Bolivia, China, Colombia, Gambia, India, Iraq, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Somalia, and Uzbekistan, and their cases were opened simultaneously in different courts across the country.
Among the most striking profiles is a Colombian-born Catholic priest convicted of sexual assault against a minor, a citizen from Morocco with alleged ties to Al Qaeda, and a Somali immigrant who pleaded guilty to providing material support to Al Shabaab, a terrorist organization designated by the United States.
The group also includes a former Gambian police officer allegedly involved in war crimes, individuals who used false identities to apply for immigration benefits, and a man who entered into fraudulent marriages to commit immigration fraud.
In a separate announcement, the Department of Justice filed a civil lawsuit to revoke the citizenship of the former ambassador and confessed Cuban spy Víctor Manuel Rocha, who was born in Colombia, began working for Cuban intelligence in 1973, and obtained U.S. citizenship in 1978 while concealing those ties.
Rocha was arrested in December 2023, pleaded guilty in April 2024, and was sentenced to 15 years in prison and a fine of 500,000 dollars. The lawsuit seeks to revoke his naturalization from 1978, cancel his citizenship certificate, confiscate his passports, and prohibit him from claiming citizen benefits.
The acting Attorney General Todd Blanche previewed the campaign in an interview with CBS News last Wednesday, stating that there are "many individuals who are citizens and should not be."
Blanche specified that only "a very small percentage" of the approximately 24 million naturalized citizens in the United States should be concerned, and that those who did not illegally obtain their citizenship "have nothing to worry about."
"We must discourage people from committing fraud when they seek to become citizens of this great country," stated Blanche. "The consequences of committing fraud to obtain citizenship are severe, just as the act of committing that fraud is drastic."
The announcement represents an unprecedented escalation: between 1990 and 2017, the federal government presented just over 300 cases of denaturalization, an average of 11 per year.
"Revocations 'to the maximum'"
The current escalation has its roots in previous decisions made by the administration. In June 2025, Deputy Attorney General Brett A. Shumate issued a memorandum ordering that these proceedings be prioritized "to the maximum."
In February 2026, the Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) set a target of between 100 and 200 monthly referrals to the Department of Justice for litigation.
Experts and civil rights organizations warn that this policy could create a "two-tiered" citizenship, making naturalized citizens more vulnerable compared to those born on U.S. soil.
In civil proceedings, the burden of proof required of the government is lower than in criminal cases, which expands the scope of action for the State.
In January 2026, President Trump had already announced that he would revoke the citizenship of naturalized immigrants convicted of fraud, stating that "citizenship is a privilege, not a right."
The Department of Justice anticipates further expanding these revocations in the coming months.
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